Yellow dust spurs exchange visits

Don Stammer

During Dr. Don Stammer’s 2006 visit to Korea, he experienced the country’s environmental problems firsthand.
“The first thing I noticed was that I got a very sore throat, and then my sinuses became very dry,” the chairman of the Australia-Korea Foundation said of his encounter with the infamous yellow dust from China. “My eyes watered, and my skin became very uncomfortable and oily. The dust hung on me and my collar got dirty very quickly.”
Although Stammer had visited the country regularly since 1984 on business, that was the first time he experienced yellow dust.
After this episode, the state of the environment in Korea took on personal significance for Stammer. So when the Australia-Korea Foundation and the Korea Foundation jointly initiated the Australia-Korea Young Leaders Exchange Program, the environment was a natural choice for the theme of this year’s exchange.
The program seeks to forge bonds between emerging leaders from the two countries to stimulate lifelong working relationships.
“Word about environmental issues has spread around the world this year, and Australia and Korea have similar and different problems,” Stammer said. “Both produce huge amounts of greenhouse gases as they are both urbanizing quickly. But for Korea, air pollution is an international issue while Australia has nothing like the problem that Korea faces.”
In the first installment of this annual exchange program, 10 Australian environmental leaders arrived in Seoul on Nov. 17 for a series of briefings and meetings with Korean environmentalists and scientists and tours of environmental restoration projects such as Seoul’s Cheonggye Stream and Hanul Park.
The Australian participants include scientists and engineers in fields spanning renewable energy to waste management and water resource management.
Although the title of the program includes the word “young,” participants range in age from 25 to 45.
“We had to define what was ‘young,’” Stammer said. “We decided to choose people who were likely to make a difference for quite some time.”
This year’s delegation to Korea wrapped up its eight-day visit on Nov. 25, but Stammer hopes the brief exchange will arouse the visitors’ interest in Korea and lead to more thorough understanding of the country’s issues in the future.
Next year, the first Korean delegation will head to Australia for meetings under the tentative theme of politics and society.

By Hannah Bae Contributing Writer [hannahbae@gmail.com]